Curran keeping Premier’s hopes grounded

Tipperary captain Paul Curran was delighted with another Munster title after his side’s hard-fought win over Waterford yesterday, but the Mullinahone man admitted that the Premier County have plenty to work on for the All-Ireland series.

“We’re delighted, it’s great to put Munster championships back to back, it’s a tough thing and Tipperary don’t have a good record of doing it.

“We just slogged it out. It was tough going around the middle with the breaking balls, I think the goal chances — we took ours and Brendan (Cummins) stopped theirs. It swung our way then.”

Curran was full of praise for his experienced keeper who denied Waterford time and again.

“He had two or three good stops there, and that’s something we have to work on ourselves. They got in for some goal chances. Brendan gives you great confidence, the number of games he’s played — it’s faster he’s getting.”

The strength of the Tipperary panel is encouraging, said Curran, particularly when it came to snuffing out the Waterford goal threat.

“The boys who came in just managed to get a hurley in here and there, and that was important because Waterford are the kind of team who can get goals and get a run on you, their heads go up.

“It’s the way it’s gone — it’s a 20-man game, lads get tired and you just bring on the fresh legs. It gives you great confidence to see the lads come on, and it’s good for training as well. There’s plenty of competition.”

It was Tipperary’s third championship game without conceding a goal, though Curran hadn’t noticed that in the immediate aftermath of the game: “That’s important but it’s not something we dwell on. It’s important but we just go out and try to stop the men in front of us.”

Those men could be in black and amber in the All-Ireland semi-final, but that’s an issue for another day.

“The Munster championship has been very competitive and there are four Munster teams left in the championship,” said Curran.

“We’re happy with the direct route, we’re back to our clubs and then we have to knuckle down again.

“We won’t think of the semi-final yet — I think they just had an off-day. In fairness, Galway are motoring well — we played them a couple of weeks beforehand and they did the same to us, so I wasn’t surprised by the performance.

“But Kilkenny are Kilkenny — anyone writing them off would be foolish. They were being written off before the league final this year and we saw what happened.

“If it’s Kilkenny so be it, but they have to get over a quarter-final yet.”